Arthur Nielsen
Dr. Arthur "Artie" Nielsen, born Arthur Weisfelt on October 27, 1978, runs Warehouse 13. He serves as its caretaker and has been there longer than any other warehouse personnel. Biography Early Life Little is known about Artie's life before he started his career in the warehouse, save that he was a Secret Service Agent and had family behind the Iron Curtain. Before working for the Warehouse, he would hunt down and trade artifacts that he found in exchange for getting family members out of the country. He only traded items he didn't think had any value to people there.Hulu.com"Whose Warehouse Is it Anyway." Video clip. (2009) Artie was a cryptographer when he was in his 20s for the National Security Agency. He decoded Soviet communications, and intercepted letters and phone transcripts for them. The NSA felt that he turned because he contacted one of the people they were spying on and started selling secrets to the Soviets. He was never prosecuted though he says he had some unmentioned reason for him to turn. Mrs. Frederick stepped in and "fixed" everything for Artie, clearing his name and his record.Implosion Artie claimed he changed his name so the Soviet government wouldn't be able to find him easily, not because he was trying to hide from the United States government. As Artie Nielsen, he then joined the Secret Service, and later the Warehouse. Warehouse 13 Career Artie has dedicated the last 40 years of his life with the Warehouse.Breakdown Early in his Warehouse career, Artie was partnered with James MacPherson. At some point during that partnership, he formed a relationship with Carol, with whom James also had a relationship. James disappeared during their partnership and to this day, Carol blames Artie for the disappearance, claiming he was responsible for it. Artie insists she simply chose poorly by choosing James instead of him. At some point in his career, Artie posed as a professor in order to get close to graduate student Joshua Donovan, to help him while he attempted teleportation research using Rheticus' Compass. It was Artie's mission to retrieve the compass. Unfortunately, Artie watched helplessly with James' younger sister, Claudia Donovan, as Joshua disappeared, apparently died in an experiment with the compass. Only later was it discovered that Joshua had trapped himself in a inter-dimensional space. This incident caused Artie much grief because he had pushed James to continue the experiment and promised Claudia that he would do whatever he could to help keep him safe. Personality Artie is a secretive person. He withholds information about himself and tends to give just enough information to agents for the mission at hand, without answering many of their questions. He obsesses about minutia to he point of neurosis, and has been known in the past to leap to conclusions based on precious little evidence beyond "gut" instinct.This is evidenced in "Implosion" during his conversation in the bar with Carol and again in the bar when he shows Mrs. Frederick the evidence of James MacPherson's presence in the case. She says "Artie, we've both seen you like this before." Artie prefers old-fashioned items and ways of doing things because they are familiar and comfortable, not necessarily because he likes them better. Artie frequently tries to protect the people with whom he's forged relationships, either by making them promises to do so (whether or not he can keep them)Claudia or by swearing to potential attackers that he won't allow harm to come to those about whom he cares. Additional Information With the help of "... things," Artie is able to reproduce items, such as a sword, in short periods of time. He likely uses artifacts. References Nielsen Nielsen Nielsen